Adsorption of organic solvent vapours on carbon nanotubes, few-layer graphene nanoflakes and their nitrogen-doped counterparts

This work studies the influence of nitrogen doping of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and few-layer graphene nanoflakes (GNFs) on the adsorption of organic solvent vapours. The synthesized materials (CNTs, GNFs and N-doped counterparts) were thoroughly characterized by simultaneous thermal analysis, low temperature nitrogen physisorption and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The basic regularities of the adsorption of organic solvent vapours were studied using acetone, ethyl acetate, acetic acid and toluene. The dependence of the maximum adsorption capacity of CNTs, GNFs and N-doped counterparts on the dipole moment of adsorbate was investigated. The dependencies of the isosteric heat of adsorption on the degree of surface coverage for various pairs of adsorbate-adsorbent were obtained and the average values of the heat of adsorption were calculated. It was found that introduction of nitrogen into the structure of CNTs and GNFs significantly increases the heat of acetic acid vapour adsorption. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

This study investigates the influence of nitrogen doping on the adsorption of organic solvent vapours by carbon nanotubes and few-layer graphene nanoflakes. Results show that nitrogen doping significantly increases the heat of acetic acid vapour adsorption.